There are many more great sleddog races around the globe beyond this list. The United States, Norway, Sweden, Canada and France are where you will find most of the Elite Class (Long Distance) Races that attract the World's top competitors. The sport is growing rapidly and each year, more races are announced, prize money's are raised, more dogs enjoy doing what they were born to do and more human athletes go pro. Like many sports, Dogsled Racing came about from historic roots, with many heroic stories of greatness, kindness and love and some stories of practices that belong firmly in the past. Today traditions are embraced and hero's remembered, but like the ancient Gladiators compared to current Olympians, the modern sport and it's athletes are a 21st century version, with modern day morals, professionalism and a scientific approach to understand and produce the best training, welfare and nutritional practices for both canine and human athletes, the healthier, fitter and stronger the dogs, the better their performance at races. With new speed records, scientific discoveries and media technology advances its a massively exciting time for the sport!

​LONG DISTANCE RACING

The toughest endurance sport on Earth! In a long distance race, ''the dogs are the real athletes'', is absolutely true. But the humans are athletes too! There are 3 aspects of the sport to consider for the human athlete.

1) The real physical athletism and endurance demands of the training program and actual competitions. During a race, Mushers will run 2 marathons a day. Thats just the uphill parts. In a race like The Femund, by the time they finish the human athletes will have run 8 marathons uphill, pushing a 50kg sled, skiied, heaved and clung onto that sled down 80 ski runs with a pulling force of a family car, then 'scooted/peddled' all the inbetweens equating to cross country skiing another 8 marathons. All while wearing 15kg of Arctic clothing, in deep snow, on high exposed mountains, with -40c blizzards as standard, throughout both day and night. From start to finish, mushers will be on their feet for 22hrs/day. And thats only a 4 day race! In order for both dogs and humans to be fit enough for this, the 9 month training program is equally as arduous, enduring and demanding. There is a reason why Iditarod is considered tougher than Everest! So cancel your Gym membership and sign up for a sleddog race!

2) After all the physical demands of racing on the trail, it doesn't end there. Unlike any other sport, when at half-time, a checkpoint or timeout, the athlete can relax and be pampered with water sponges, orange segments and a sports massage, the musher has no such luxury. The musher must look after their 12 canine team mates! The musher's job does not finish when he 'walks off the pitch', it simply changes from Athlete to Physio/Vet/Cook/Outdoorsman. Before the musher can eat, drink, rest or even visit the toilet, there is 1-2 hours of jobs to do feeding, bedding down, massaging and caring for the dogs!

3) The Long Distance 'specialism' incorporates ALL the other Mushing disciplines in training: dryland sprint, caniX, small team, mid-distance, skijoring are all part of a long distance kennel's training program. In early autumn a leader training trip will involve running 5-10km with a small team of 6-10 dogs on a wheeled rig, teaching the "pick up" command and hitting speeds of 35-40kmh, requiring nerves of steel around tight bends! Some dogs require some extra one-on-one training, meaning a trip out on foot, skis or the bike, a great way to add to a mushers own physical training! In the Early winter we race at mid-distance events of 40-200km, these require a very different approach and race plan as the tempo is much faster, while pacing oneself and the dogs is not as critical. And of course then there is the endurance training, the conditioning. Racing long distance requires far more commitment than a full time job. During November and December we take the dogs out on 100-300km training trips. A week of 12 hours a day behind the sled, is followed by a few days rest before repeating. By the time the team stand on the start line at a long distance race, the dogs will have trained around 4,000-5,000km, and out of the nature that you can not always train 18-24 dogs at once, often splitting the team into two, the musher has normally clocked twice that.